Diamond HD4870 1GB Review

Introduction:

Are you trying to get the most out of your computer setup? Are you looking for a single card configuration that is going to give you those extra frames during your high resolution online game play? How about a few extra points in your favorite benchmark? Well Diamond may just have the perfect solution for you with their HD4870 1GB version. Thats right, there is a total of 1GB of GDDR5 memory installed on this card to give you the extra punch for those demanding games. The card comes clocked in at stock core and memory clock speeds, however where it makes up its score will be in the large amount of memory. I am interested to see exactly how much higher scores I will get with an extra 512MB of memory. So with out any more delay, let's start.

Closer Look:

The packaging for the Diamond HD4870 1GB is a brilliant black box with a picture of beautiful warrior princess(Named Ruby of course) on the right side of the package. The warrior picture signifies the fact that the card is not only a good looking card, but is also going to give you the power and performance that you would expect from a warrior. The top left hand corner is where the Diamond logo is located while the top right hand corner is where the ATI, PCI-E & DDR5, and Customer Support badges are located. In the center of the front is where you are going to find the Radeon HD4870 logo printed with the slogan "Advance to the Next Generation of HD Entertainment" located under it. In large letters there is also a statement letting you know that there is 1 Gigabyte of memory installed on the Diamond HD4870 card. The back is where you are going to find all of the major features of the card and a nice description of them. On one of the sides, you are going to find all of the connections/adapters that are located on the card, which include the PCI-E, Dual DVI, and single S-Video out. The next side is where the key features are located along with the system requirements.

After you open up the black packaging, you are going to find a white box inside, this is where the Diamond HD4870 1GB card and all of the accessories are located, when you open it up, you are going to see that there is a white box at the top, which is going to hold all of the accessories for the card and there is a section with a foam covering that holds the card, to keep it protected from any accidents that may occur from the shipping process. There is also a booklet that holds all of the important documentation for the HD4870.

The Diamond HD4870 1GB video card comes packaged with the main accessories that come with just about every ATI Video card these days. There is a bag of goodies along with a cardboard envelope packed inside of the main packaging. The bag of goodies has a few different connectors inside of it, one of which is the S-Video to RCA cabling to connect your computer to your analog TV; however if you have an HDTV, you are able to use the DVI to HDMI dongle. Speaking of digital to analog connectors there is also a dongle for connecting your analog monitor to your new Diamond card. There is also a Crossfire bridge if you had two or more HD4870s and wanted to get the most performance you can get. Inside the envelope is where you are going to find the drivers installation CD, the user manual incase you need help installing your new card, along with a slip of paper letting you know that you need to contatct customer support before you take the card back to the store you purchased it from.

Now that we have the goodies all unpacked, its time to take a nice look at the Diamond HD4870 1GB and see what she is made of!